2012 has been a remarkable year for me. I've learned so many things about diet and health, i couldn't begin to recap them. My food intake, supplementation, and various practices (like sleep and exercise) will NEVER be the same again!
I'd like to thank a few of the people from whom i've obtained so much valuable information -- Peter at Hyperlipid, Sidereal, Wooo and Kindke, for some good solid science; Lori, Karen, and that Exceptionally Brash one, for sharing their experiences and what they've learned from it all; and countless others who have helped and encouraged me, even though they don't know they've done so.
Thanks to Steph (wherever she is), whose example inspired me to start this blog -- i never would have believed anyone would want to read my ravings and ramblings! :-) And thanks to those who DO read it, and who send me comments of encouragement, commiseration and advice!
You ALL have meant a lot to me, and i hope you all have a stellar new year!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
the old if-then
I don't often get a flashback to middle-school -- those were NOT the happiest years of my life! But ruminating on the better aspects of burning-carbs-with-exercise last week, i pulled up two memories of the old days....
Which classroom gave us our first contact with the subject of logic? I'm not sure; it had to have been either English or science. And, or, if, then: that was the sort of thing my geeky mind found entertaining! (It wasn't until my last year of high school that i discovered algebra could be as fun as working puzzles -- up to then math had just been drudgery.)
SO! IF you're doing a lot of physical work like hauling weights up an 8% grade, THEN you can afford to eat more readily-burned fuel like starches. IF you are not doing such work AND you eat the starches anyway, THEN you will either gain fat weight OR burn the excess calories as heat, but the latter only IF your metabolism is "whole" enough to do that sort of thing.
I could go on like this forever. Central point is, all your hormonal and metabolic ducks have GOT to be in a row to be able to pull off the starch-eating. Most of the time, mine are not.
The other connection from the "bad old days" is just an object-lesson: when i ceased riding the bus the 1.1 mi distance to school and began walking it twice a day, the "seal-puppy" i once was lost quite a bit of fat and got significantly more fit. An adolescent's hormones can be just as F'd up as a middle-aged woman's, i suspect! This SHOULD nudge me to do my 2 miles a day ... but will it? ..."Earth to Tess...?!" [crackle of "dead air"]
Which classroom gave us our first contact with the subject of logic? I'm not sure; it had to have been either English or science. And, or, if, then: that was the sort of thing my geeky mind found entertaining! (It wasn't until my last year of high school that i discovered algebra could be as fun as working puzzles -- up to then math had just been drudgery.)
SO! IF you're doing a lot of physical work like hauling weights up an 8% grade, THEN you can afford to eat more readily-burned fuel like starches. IF you are not doing such work AND you eat the starches anyway, THEN you will either gain fat weight OR burn the excess calories as heat, but the latter only IF your metabolism is "whole" enough to do that sort of thing.
I could go on like this forever. Central point is, all your hormonal and metabolic ducks have GOT to be in a row to be able to pull off the starch-eating. Most of the time, mine are not.
The other connection from the "bad old days" is just an object-lesson: when i ceased riding the bus the 1.1 mi distance to school and began walking it twice a day, the "seal-puppy" i once was lost quite a bit of fat and got significantly more fit. An adolescent's hormones can be just as F'd up as a middle-aged woman's, i suspect! This SHOULD nudge me to do my 2 miles a day ... but will it? ..."Earth to Tess...?!" [crackle of "dead air"]
Saturday, December 29, 2012
ONLY eat more carbs ...
...IF you plan to burn them off with exercise NOW. This is one of the lessons i'm taking away from my vacation experience.
While i was stoically trudging up and down the hills of Seattle, the rice and potatoes i ate didn't seem to mess me up. I'd hike all around after the breakfast that included hash-browns (because no lone omelette is big enough to sate me except the ones at Billie's!), and before and after lunch/dinner (which sometimes included dessert) as well, in order to try different wonderful restaurants in the area. I vowed to myself to bring along a pedometer on all future trips during which i expect to do a lot of walking, just to satisfy my curiosity.
My jeans didn't fit any differently till we got on the train to return home, and i continued the potato-and-rice-including regimen without putting in the mileage. My ability to delay meals markedly declined, as well as "muscle energy." I felt generally less resilient, and distinctly more gassy. Trying to carry luggage up the steep narrow rail-car stairways caused my knees to refuse to straighten.
Back at home, i won't be getting as much or the same kind of exercise. Walking on the flats around my neighborhood with the dog won't give me the same kind of workout i got last week -- for which my back will be grateful! Climbing the countless stairs that i do at home doesn't compare, either. Even if i cared to continue the higher-carb diet (which i DON'T!) i couldn't justify it through energy expenditure, and WOULD gain fat on it.
Exercise like a mad person just so i could eat these bland foodstuffs??? Gag! I'm a hedonist! I want my rack of lamb ... which, coincidentally enough, is for dinner tonight!
While i was stoically trudging up and down the hills of Seattle, the rice and potatoes i ate didn't seem to mess me up. I'd hike all around after the breakfast that included hash-browns (because no lone omelette is big enough to sate me except the ones at Billie's!), and before and after lunch/dinner (which sometimes included dessert) as well, in order to try different wonderful restaurants in the area. I vowed to myself to bring along a pedometer on all future trips during which i expect to do a lot of walking, just to satisfy my curiosity.
My jeans didn't fit any differently till we got on the train to return home, and i continued the potato-and-rice-including regimen without putting in the mileage. My ability to delay meals markedly declined, as well as "muscle energy." I felt generally less resilient, and distinctly more gassy. Trying to carry luggage up the steep narrow rail-car stairways caused my knees to refuse to straighten.
Back at home, i won't be getting as much or the same kind of exercise. Walking on the flats around my neighborhood with the dog won't give me the same kind of workout i got last week -- for which my back will be grateful! Climbing the countless stairs that i do at home doesn't compare, either. Even if i cared to continue the higher-carb diet (which i DON'T!) i couldn't justify it through energy expenditure, and WOULD gain fat on it.
Exercise like a mad person just so i could eat these bland foodstuffs??? Gag! I'm a hedonist! I want my rack of lamb ... which, coincidentally enough, is for dinner tonight!
"everywhere i go, there's always an asshole"
It's no secret -- i enjoy movies which my friend Jules and i describe as "charming garbage." ...The kind which have major flaws but which are enjoyable for the mood you come away with, after seeing them. They sometimes have a great soundtrack, or abundant eye-candy, or characters who tickle you, or witty dialogue: whatever! One such piece of '80s fluff was "Streets of Fire."
One character in it reminds me of my niece, the ex-WAC* -- one of those tough babies with a heart of gold. She's sitting in a bar chatting with the hero, and the bartender becomes obnoxious, so she punches him out and delivers the line from which i derived today's blog title.
'Cause it's true -- you can't go anywhere without coming in contact with people who are a disgrace to whatever group or profession or hobby they belong to. For every Chris Masterjohn there's a Stephan Guyenet; for every Sisson or Wolf there's a ... few people who comment on FTA. ;-)
But to assume that the proverbial spoiled apple is reason to discard the entire containerful is faulty logic.
Speaking for myself, even though i was doing low-carb and getting good results as long as i went low enough, when i committed to a month of strict paleo-style eating ... i couldn't believe how much better i felt! The stiffness and aches, the inflammation and allergies, the heart arrhythmia, the bloat and the occasional intestinal woes cleared up in a miraculous way. Clearly -- those foods which have been labeled "neolithic" by my favorite paleoblogospheric writers ARE problematic for me: gluten grains, seed oils, and even some kinds of dairy products.
THIS MUCH smoke indicates a fire somewhere -- the tiny smudge emanating from a guru's incense-burner can't be mistaken for what i'm seeing.
And now that i'm home again, i'm going back on the whole-30-style wagon. (I would say strong-medicine-wagon, except that i anticipate eating eggs as well as my meat, coffee and "yellow vegetables.") I anticipate feeling less like a bloated manatee within the week.
_____
* dating myself with the use of obsolete terminology again....
One character in it reminds me of my niece, the ex-WAC* -- one of those tough babies with a heart of gold. She's sitting in a bar chatting with the hero, and the bartender becomes obnoxious, so she punches him out and delivers the line from which i derived today's blog title.
'Cause it's true -- you can't go anywhere without coming in contact with people who are a disgrace to whatever group or profession or hobby they belong to. For every Chris Masterjohn there's a Stephan Guyenet; for every Sisson or Wolf there's a ... few people who comment on FTA. ;-)
But to assume that the proverbial spoiled apple is reason to discard the entire containerful is faulty logic.
Speaking for myself, even though i was doing low-carb and getting good results as long as i went low enough, when i committed to a month of strict paleo-style eating ... i couldn't believe how much better i felt! The stiffness and aches, the inflammation and allergies, the heart arrhythmia, the bloat and the occasional intestinal woes cleared up in a miraculous way. Clearly -- those foods which have been labeled "neolithic" by my favorite paleoblogospheric writers ARE problematic for me: gluten grains, seed oils, and even some kinds of dairy products.
THIS MUCH smoke indicates a fire somewhere -- the tiny smudge emanating from a guru's incense-burner can't be mistaken for what i'm seeing.
And now that i'm home again, i'm going back on the whole-30-style wagon. (I would say strong-medicine-wagon, except that i anticipate eating eggs as well as my meat, coffee and "yellow vegetables.") I anticipate feeling less like a bloated manatee within the week.
_____
* dating myself with the use of obsolete terminology again....
Thursday, December 27, 2012
"normal response" to carbs, at last?
There's no doubt about the fact that i feel best on VLC. But surprisingly enough after this holiday of unusual carb intake, my mood and physical sense of well-being are pretty high. Why? I can guess, and it's all about exercise, omega-3 and hormones.
We walked ALL over the downtown area of Seattle, and though the hills did a number on my back and legs, i know we burned a boatload of glucose in the process. I ordered seafood at meals whenever i wasn't actually craving red meat. I encouraged mitochondrial performance with carnitine, and boosted raw material for testosterone production with pregnenolone supplements. Through it all, when not having to wait in uncomfortable public areas for late trains, i've been sleeping well.
I've resisted snacking most of the time, and when i succumbed it was generally to pistachios or cashews (once, waiting for the dinner train an extra 3 hours or so after having no lunch, i had myself a happy-hour with cheese-flavored rice crackers and Abbeys). I've tried to satisfy appetite on the meat or egg main dish , and then "fill up the corners" (if you'll forgive the Hobbitism) with non-starchy vegetables, then potatoes and finally with sweets.
The celebration-worthy part of gaining a little fat through it all is that leptin is doing its proper job of inhibiting subsequent appetite. Eating a good-sized meal with more carbs than i'm used to is not spurring me to chow down again in a couple of hours, but to WANT to fast for awhile! Many days, we've been eating a late breakfast and an early dinner, and that's all.
Well, i'm not going to "continue the experiment" when we get home -- i'll be gratefully returning to the VLC diet i actually PREFER. I enjoyed that croissant and the four bites of sourdough toast i had, but i feel no desire to make a regular indulgence of it. Pushing my luck any further is NOT at all tempting!
We walked ALL over the downtown area of Seattle, and though the hills did a number on my back and legs, i know we burned a boatload of glucose in the process. I ordered seafood at meals whenever i wasn't actually craving red meat. I encouraged mitochondrial performance with carnitine, and boosted raw material for testosterone production with pregnenolone supplements. Through it all, when not having to wait in uncomfortable public areas for late trains, i've been sleeping well.
I've resisted snacking most of the time, and when i succumbed it was generally to pistachios or cashews (once, waiting for the dinner train an extra 3 hours or so after having no lunch, i had myself a happy-hour with cheese-flavored rice crackers and Abbeys). I've tried to satisfy appetite on the meat or egg main dish , and then "fill up the corners" (if you'll forgive the Hobbitism) with non-starchy vegetables, then potatoes and finally with sweets.
The celebration-worthy part of gaining a little fat through it all is that leptin is doing its proper job of inhibiting subsequent appetite. Eating a good-sized meal with more carbs than i'm used to is not spurring me to chow down again in a couple of hours, but to WANT to fast for awhile! Many days, we've been eating a late breakfast and an early dinner, and that's all.
Well, i'm not going to "continue the experiment" when we get home -- i'll be gratefully returning to the VLC diet i actually PREFER. I enjoyed that croissant and the four bites of sourdough toast i had, but i feel no desire to make a regular indulgence of it. Pushing my luck any further is NOT at all tempting!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
superior P-word supplement
I'm very pleased with how i feel, using the pregnenolone. It's been a two or three weeks since i started taking a 10 mg sublingual every day and i have that "balanced" feeling which, at my age, is cause for rejoicing. I've also settled into taking a gram of carnitine every morning, which together with the P does a much better job of providing steady (if not abundant) energy than tyrosine, which tends to make me uncomfortably wired.
The thing i didn't like about the progesterone creme i used to use was that i definitely put FAT on the portions of my anatomy where it was applied. And those places where it is recommended that one apply the creme? -- EXACTLY where i don't need more fat! :-) I ended up preferring to rub it into my butt, to balance my proportions out a bit. When i first learned about maca, i thought maybe that would be good for me, but hearing that it can be detrimental to thyroid function, i haven't played with it much yet.
I didn't get an immediate boost from the pregnenolone -- it took at least a week for me to feel that something good was happening. Of course, being the cautious self-experimenter that i am, i wasn't about to start off with the massive dose some people use. However, being also of an age at which natural pregnenolone production is significantly reduced, i felt confident about doubling the amount suggested by Dr. Peat -- 10 mg is the smallest concentration offered through Amazon.
I didn't get the boundless energy of youth, but i do feel good about adding this supplement to my regimen -- the more so because it IS the dissolve-in-the-mouth sort (i do get tired of swallowing pills). Perhaps when the time comes to buy another bottle i'll go for the 25 mg size. If i don't like the way i feel with the higher dosage, i'll just bite the little suckers in half.
The thing i didn't like about the progesterone creme i used to use was that i definitely put FAT on the portions of my anatomy where it was applied. And those places where it is recommended that one apply the creme? -- EXACTLY where i don't need more fat! :-) I ended up preferring to rub it into my butt, to balance my proportions out a bit. When i first learned about maca, i thought maybe that would be good for me, but hearing that it can be detrimental to thyroid function, i haven't played with it much yet.
I didn't get an immediate boost from the pregnenolone -- it took at least a week for me to feel that something good was happening. Of course, being the cautious self-experimenter that i am, i wasn't about to start off with the massive dose some people use. However, being also of an age at which natural pregnenolone production is significantly reduced, i felt confident about doubling the amount suggested by Dr. Peat -- 10 mg is the smallest concentration offered through Amazon.
I didn't get the boundless energy of youth, but i do feel good about adding this supplement to my regimen -- the more so because it IS the dissolve-in-the-mouth sort (i do get tired of swallowing pills). Perhaps when the time comes to buy another bottle i'll go for the 25 mg size. If i don't like the way i feel with the higher dosage, i'll just bite the little suckers in half.
Monday, December 24, 2012
enough love
I treated myself to a new DVD copy of my favorite Christmas movie, the 1951 British production of "A Christmas Carol," starring Alastair Sim. This one is very faithful to Dickens' story, and the cast is full of GREAT character actors of the era. It's heartfelt without being maudlin.
To me, the theme of this movie IS Love -- the "Christmas" aspect is almost incidental. You see the Cratchit family in their respectable poverty, mutually supporting each other in an atmosphere in which Love keeps the threadbare aspect of their lives from dominating. Ditto for Scrooge's nephew, though he obviously has a better job than Bob does. (Compare this to my favorite Dickens novel "Our Mutual Friend," in which poor Rumty Wilfer's living room -- cold with selfishness -- is a very uncomfortable place indeed.)
Bearing in mind this IS fiction, you can still connect that when children are raised with the knowledge that they are warmly loved and that their real best interests are considered important*, they learn by example HOW TO LOVE, themselves. Conversely, the hero of the tale grew up convinced that he was NOT loved, which put him emotionally on his own -- no good formative example for HIM! Of course he didn't prioritize love in his life (or anything else besides money) -- he had no idea that it had any value.
We see all the time that some people just don't know HOW to love. Why??? Could it be comparable to a person who has never seen a meal cooked from scratch not knowing how to cook? Is it like a person who has never seen printed materials before not knowing how to read? I sure think so.
For a household, or any other group of people, to enjoy the kind of harmony that makes light of privation, truly caring about the comfort and troubles of each other is a seed which will bear the kind of fruit everyone rejoices to see.
___
* I didn't say "happiness" mind you -- trying to "make children happy" frequently backfires.
To me, the theme of this movie IS Love -- the "Christmas" aspect is almost incidental. You see the Cratchit family in their respectable poverty, mutually supporting each other in an atmosphere in which Love keeps the threadbare aspect of their lives from dominating. Ditto for Scrooge's nephew, though he obviously has a better job than Bob does. (Compare this to my favorite Dickens novel "Our Mutual Friend," in which poor Rumty Wilfer's living room -- cold with selfishness -- is a very uncomfortable place indeed.)
Bearing in mind this IS fiction, you can still connect that when children are raised with the knowledge that they are warmly loved and that their real best interests are considered important*, they learn by example HOW TO LOVE, themselves. Conversely, the hero of the tale grew up convinced that he was NOT loved, which put him emotionally on his own -- no good formative example for HIM! Of course he didn't prioritize love in his life (or anything else besides money) -- he had no idea that it had any value.
We see all the time that some people just don't know HOW to love. Why??? Could it be comparable to a person who has never seen a meal cooked from scratch not knowing how to cook? Is it like a person who has never seen printed materials before not knowing how to read? I sure think so.
For a household, or any other group of people, to enjoy the kind of harmony that makes light of privation, truly caring about the comfort and troubles of each other is a seed which will bear the kind of fruit everyone rejoices to see.
___
* I didn't say "happiness" mind you -- trying to "make children happy" frequently backfires.
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